Classical music — orchestral and opera — has been one of my major interests for most of my life. I'll use this blog to tell about some of the concerts I'm attending and the opportunities to listen to some of them and other good programs on the web.
Thie BSO played a concert at Tanglewood on July 5. This wweekend WCRB resumes their customary broadcasts of weekend concerts on Friday and Saturday virtuallt live and Sunday recorded in the afternoon to be broadcast a 7:00 p.m.Here's how they synopsize this evening's performance:
Music by Tchaikovsky begins the first full weekend of Boston Symphony performances at Tanglewood, including the First Piano Concerto with soloist Seong-Jin Cho and selections from Swan Lake — all led by Andris Nelsons.
Andris Nelsons, conductor Seong-Jin Cho, piano
All-Tchaikovsky program Piano Concerto No. 1 Excerpts from Swan Lake
It takes some doing to find the BSO's own description of the event. You have to goto their homepage, choose "Tickets and Events," select the date of the concertsm and then click on the "Learn More" button.When you do that forJuly 10, 2026, tou end up here: https://www.bso.org/events/july-10-boston-symphony-orch?performance=2026-07-10-20:00
The arrows get you to performer bios and program notes. Although the concerto is pretty familiar, the note gives some interesting background information.
I had written about all three of this weekend's concerts, but when I went to copy it, the post disappeared. I'll try to post about Saturday and Sunday tomorrow. Meanwhile, enjoy this performance.
For the final concert of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 2025-2026 season, Dima Slobodeniouk conducts the BSO and Tanglewood Festival Chorus in John Adams’ spaciously pulsating Harmonium and, with four stellar soloists, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and its “Ode to Joy.”.
Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor Andrea Carroll, soprano Zoie Reams, mezzo-soprano Andrew Haji, tenor Morris Robinson, bass Tanglewood Festival Chorus Jean-Sébastien Vallée, guest choral conductor
John ADAMS Harmonium Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9
Returning for his second BSO program this season, Dima Slobodeniouk leads one of the American composer John Adams’ first major works, Harmonium for chorus and orchestra. Written in 1981 for the San Francisco Symphony, this grand, half-hour work sets a poem by John Donne and two by Emily Dickinson in gradually unfolding, majestic textures. With its slowly evolving harmonic fields and rhythmic energy, Harmonium marked the future Pulitzer Prize winner and composer of the operas Doctor Atomic and Nixon in China as an important and original voice in American music. Beethoven's larger-than-life, ecstatic Symphony No. 9 closes the season.
I suppose we all know what to expect with the Beethoven, but the Adams will be new to me, so I found the program note worth reading.
In his first appearance with the BSO since 2015, star pianist Evgeny Kissin performs two contrasting concertos: Mozart’s charming and poignant Concerto No. 12, and Scriabin’s rhapsodic Piano Concerto. Andrey Boreyko leads this sparkling, Russian-leaning program, opening with Rimsky-Korsakov’s brilliantly colorful Russian Easter Overture and featuring three atmospheric tone poems by Anatoly Liadov from the early 20th century.
Andrey Boreyko, conductor Evgeny Kissin, piano
Nikolai RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Russian Easter Festival Overture W. A. MOZART Piano Concerto No. 12 in A, K.414 Anatoly LIADOV Baba Yaga LIADOV The Enchanted Lake LIADOV Kikimora Alexander SCRIABIN Piano Concerto
In a conversation with CRB's Brian McCreath, conductor Andrey Boreyko reveals the connections between the arrangement of the musicians of the orchestra and music from the Russian tradition, as well as the unique qualities of Scriabin's Piano Concerto and Evgeny Kissin's interpretation of it. To listen, use the player above, and read the transcript below.
program features acclaimed soloist Evgeny Kissin performing two strongly contrasting concertos. Composed to appeal to audiences in Mozart’s new home of Vienna, the Concerto No. 12 is by turns charming and poignant, its second movement a touching tribute to his late friend Johann Christian Bach. The Russian composer Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Concerto, composed more than 100 years later, is rhapsodic and Romantic. The BSO has only played Scriabin’s concerto on two prior occasions, most recently in 2001. Andrey Boreyko leads this sparkling, Russian-leaning program, opening with Rimsky-Korsakov’s brilliantly colorfulRussian Easter Overture and featuring three atmospheric tone poems by Anatoli Liadov from the early 20th century.
As usual, performer bios and program notes are avsilsble when you go to the BSO page and click on the arrows.
Dutch duo-pianists Lucas and Arthur Jussen perform a BSO-commissioned piece written for them by American composer and Grawemeyer Award-winner Andrew Norman. Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki also leads the BSO in Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances and Ravel’s beloved Mother Goose suite.
Susanna Mälkki, conductor Lucas and Arthur Jussen, pianos
Maurice RAVEL Mother Goose Suite Andrew NORMAN Split, for two pianos and orchestra (world premiere; BSO co-commission) Sergei RACHMANINOFF Symphonic Dances, Op. 45
In a preview of the program, Susanna Mälkki describes the character and challenge of Andrew Norman's Split, why Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances is one of her favorite pieces, and what she looks for in building effective artistic relationships with orchestras.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT (lightly edited for clarity):
Brian McCreathI'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Susanna Mälkki, who's back with the Boston Symp
It turns out Split was originally composed in a version for one piano over ten years ago. The composer has reworked itinto the two piano version which the BSO is premiering this week.
More information, including performer bios and program notes, are available at the BSO performance detail page, where we see the following:
Popular Dutch duo-pianists Lucas and Arthur Jussen return to Symphony Hall for a BSO-commissioned world premiere. This music was written especially for them by American composer Andrew Norman, winner of the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for his orchestral work Play. Maurice Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite brings the composer’s mastery of orchestral color to his fairy-tale suite, originally written for piano, four-hands. Closing the program is Sergei Rachmaninoff’s tour-de-force for orchestra, by turns powerfully energetic and meltingly lyrical: his Symphonic Dances, the composer’s final work.
So far I don't see any reviews in either the Globe or the Intelligencer.
I was at the Friday afternoon performance. The Ravel was fine but unexciting. The Jussen brothers were excellent. Unfortunately the music they and the orchestra had to play was mostly loud and unappealing (to me anyway). The brothers would have something nice and then the orchestra would crash in. A musician might see something worthwhile or admire the composer's technique, but it was lost on me. Maybe I'll like it better over the radio this evening. The Jussens certainly deserved the enthusiastic applause they got. I paid closer attention to the Stravinsky than I do when it's being played as part of the regular radio programming and functions nore as background music. So I noticed parts (mostly softer ones) which usually escape my attention. It's a pretty good piece if not up to the level of the greatest compositions of all time.
Bottom line: it's worth listeningg to the concert, especially if the Jussens give us an encore.
This is the site for schedules, online ticket purchases, notes about works to be performed, information about various events including the Pops and Tanglewood seasons, online purchases of Symphony recordings and other merchandise, information about Symphony Hall, and more.
they broadcast and stream Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts, live performances in their studios, and concerts that they have recorded elsewhere, as well as commercial recordings
they broadcast and stream the Metropolitan Opera Saturday matinees and their own "Sunday Night at the Opera," recorded concerts by orchestras in other cities, as well as commercial recordings
located in Colorado Springs, CO — they broadcast and stream locally produced programming, including recordings of concerts by the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, as well as other orchestras around the country, the Met and commercial recordings
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ABC Classic FM — www.abc.net.au/classic/
all classical
Australian broadcaster — also streams their programs
